


Like Tryin' To Rope The Wind

by WeWillSpockYou



Category: McKirk - Fandom, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Dancing in the Rain, Gen, Jimmy talks to his father, Thunder and Lightning, Thunderstorms, heartbreaking fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-16
Updated: 2014-08-16
Packaged: 2018-02-13 10:09:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2146767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeWillSpockYou/pseuds/WeWillSpockYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jimmy Kirk gets closer to his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Tryin' To Rope The Wind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Corrie71](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corrie71/gifts).



Lightning from miles away lit up Jimmy Kirk’s entire bedroom.  Starship models dangling from the ceiling cast misshapen shadows on the walls. It was almost time. Jimmy crept from his bed and tiptoed to the window. It took all of his strength to pry the window open a crack. His tiny muscles shook from the effort it took to get the ancient window to budge upward more than a few inches. Jimmy knelt in front of the window, his hair ruffled in the stiff breeze that heralded the oncoming storm. Lightning flashed again in the distance followed closely by the rolling rumble of thunder. “Wait for me, Daddy.” Jimmy whispered to the thunder.

He dashed from the window to his bedroom door, easing it open a crack. He peered into the hallway. There was no sign of Frank or his mother. Jimmy shut the door behind him. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself and nothing would do that faster than an open door with an empty bed.

Jimmy slunk to the top of the stairs and listened hard. He could hear the deep, grumbling snores indicating that Frank had once again passed out in his chair. Jimmy knew there would be an empty bottle of Jack Daniels clutched in his arms. He kept listening, using his “listening ears” as Miss Watcher called them and heard the monotone voices of the Cubs announcers coming from the smart screen.  Frank was out cold and would not see him creep to the door.

That left his mother. Jimmy steeled his courage and quietly as he could, or as quietly as could be done in such an old, creaky farmhouse, started down the stairs. He knew where every loose board lay and was extra careful to avoid the squeaky spots. He felt brave like Spiderman in the comic books he read then hid under his bed. Frank didn’t have time for useless shit like that, he had a farm to run.

Once he reached the bottom of the stairs he let out the breath he had been holding and took a couple of deep ones to help calm his pounding heart. It was beating so hard he was sure it was loud enough to wake Frank. He poked his head around the corner of the doorway to the parlor. Usually his mother sat in this room reading or watching her own smart screen, but the room was empty and the screen was dark.

It was now or never. Only twelve small steps from the foot of the stairs to the front door. Jimmy had counted them one sunny Wednesday when Frank had ordered him inside for punishment and he was trying to delay the inevitable for as long as he could. He wiped his small arm across the sweat pouring down his brow, wiping his arm on the back of his pajamas. He dashed, on tip-toe to the screen door, carefully pushing it open slowly so it wouldn’t squeak. Jimmy was also careful to ease the door closed once he was on the other side instead of letting it slam like he always did when he ran out the door to freedom.

Jimmy ran into the front yard as purple forks of lightning streaked across the sky. Jimmy threw his arms wide and tilted his face up to the sky. Thunder crashed and rolled across the sky. “Hi, Daddy!” He yelled into the wind.

The first fat drop of rain splashed across his face. Lightning sizzled across the Iowa sky, the next round of thunder rolled and Jimmy yelled. “I hit a home run today, Daddy!” Wind swirled around his small body as the sky opened up, soaking Jimmy to his bones.

He left his arms thrown wide as he twirled around in the storm. “I wish you could have seen it, Daddy.” His cry mingled with the howling of the wind, it was as if the wind mourned George Kirk’s loss with his small son. If Jimmy felt warm tears on his chilled face he did not let on, letting them fall alongside the raindrops.

“Coach finally let me play left field, just like you, Daddy!” Jimmy jumped into the air shaking his fist in victory. “He said I was too small, but I told him I was gonna be just like you.” The wind howled as bolt of lightning slammed into a nearby tree. Jimmy could smell the ozone on the air and wrinkled his nose. “AGAIN, DADDY, AGAIN!” Jimmy screamed into storm. He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet trying to get as close as he could to the sky.

“JIMMY?” Winona Kirk yelled from the safety of the porch.  She spotted her small son in the front yard jumping up and down in the storm. She ran to him and yanked him into her arms. “I couldn’t find you, what are you doing out here? Let’s go in the house and get warm and dry.”

“NO!” Jimmy yelled trying to pull loose from her arms. “It’s Daddy, he’s here with me, with us, Mom don’t you feel him?”  Jimmy looked away from her and focused his eyes upward into the pouring rain.

Winona felt like she’d been the one hit by lightning instead of that old hickory tree. Jimmy felt George in the storm? How was that possible? She’d always told her son he had been born during a lightning storm in space. It made sense that Jimmy would associate lightning with his father; the father he’d never met.

She let Jimmy go and her son whooped into the night. These last seven years had been hell on earth for her. It felt like half of her heart was ripped out the day George died. What should have been the greatest day of her life had turned into the worst.  She loved her son, but could never look into his too blue eyes without seeing George and their lost future.

“Mommy’s here!  Daddy, say hello.” Jimmy shouted.

Winona stood and began twirling in the storm alongside her son. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. “Hello, my love.” Winona whispered to the wind.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a killer. It ripped my heart out and stomped on it several times. The lines of dialogue we’re especially hard. I could hear that little boy yelling into the wind, his voice still high pitched and shrill. Winona’s line really turned on the waterworks…
> 
> You’re gonna laugh when I tell you this story all started with sex!! I wrote a sex prompt for the 40 Days of Filth about sex in a wildly inappropriate location. It was about Jim and Bones making love in the middle of a thunderstorm and Jim commenting later how wild it was, Bones, seeing the wonder in Jim, agreed. My lovely, and wonderfully talented friend Corrie71 mentioned that lightning was a great metaphor for Jim. I wrote back that I could see him being drawn to storms as a way of being closer to his father. She asked me to write it, so I did!
> 
> The story itself started last Sunday. I was on my way to the beach to see the rise of the “Super Moon” when little Jimmy whispered the line, “Wait for me, Daddy.” I felt tears prick my eyes and I fumbled for the travel notebook I keep in my purse! I wrote most of this short hand sitting in my beach chair in between taking pics of the amazing sunset and laughing at the gorgeous but totally stupid father sitting nearby telling his kids that the sun sets in the East… ah well, as Miss Ellie would say, “Pretty don’t pay the bills.”
> 
> The title for this story comes from a couple of different places. The first being Garth Brooks, he sings a song called The Thunder Rolls and has an album by the name of Ropin’ The Wind. The phrase “…is like trying to rope the wind” is an idiom for an exercise in futility. Jimmy running into a raging storm to be close to his Daddy is like tryin’ to rope the wind. It’s so beautifully heartbreaking. 
> 
> Thank you so much for the plot bunny. I love being on this wild ride with you!! I hope this one breaks your heart and stitches it back together again! I'm still emotionally compromised and I guarantee I will never see a thunderstorm the same way again!


End file.
